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Loren's Badass Chick: Melinda Pavlata

Bellydancer, circus performer and aerialist.

This week's Badass Chick is Melinda Pavlata. She's a bellydancer, a circus performer and an aerialist -- just to name a few things. Most importantly, she's a fiercely feminist woman who believes in teaching the power of confidence to not only her amazingly badass daughter Zoe, but to hundreds of women who come to learn from her at her studio.

Melinda is pretty amazing. She grew up with a bellydancing mother in Greece and a circus performing father in the US. She split her time between the two places and traveled the world as a performer as well. Eventually, she settled down in Boston where she attended Wellesley College and even received her PhD in Medieval French Literature. Melinda now runs the Moody Street Circus in Waltham, where she teaches her special skillset to others. What she offers is not just about body movement, though: it is about teaching women self-care and self-confidence. She stresses that there is beauty and power in challening yourself, setting new goals and being just as strong physically as you are emotionally. She's an exceptionally badass woman raising an equally-badass daughter who has followed in her footsteps to become a premiere aerialist herself...and is also going to attend Wellesley College just like her mom.